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The Bishop Eddie Long story (posted by Alvin earlier) is getting major MSM coverage, as it should. The shocking allegations were outlined by the attorney for the plaintiffs, and the charges are specific and damning.
B.J. Bernstein, the plaintiff’s attorney: “He (Bishop Long) would use biblical stories to talk about how important it was to follow your leader, and your master. And let him know that the acts he was engaged in were not necessarily meaning he was a homosexual or that either of them was, but rather the pastor, Bishop Long, was “releasing his passion” — and “his love” for Anthony.
There’s more before and after that snippet of transcript. I was too disgusted to do more. Watch the whole video. The whispers around Long has been there for years; the level of homophobia he expressed was way too telling and look at what we see above — he can commit sodomy on those young men and describe it in such disgusting terms and conflating it with religious leadership to assert the power differential with his victims. Those are the kind of acts of a true predator.
Rick’s List covered this story and there’s now a full transcript. I have a snippet below the fold.From the CNN transcript (full version here):
SANCHEZ: It’s a story that is shocking many Americans on this night. One of the country’s most famous Christian pastors is being accused of having sex with members of his church. Not just any members. We’re talking about teenage boys he may have met when they were as young as 14, and then according to the allegations may have had relationships with them after they had turned 16 and above.
In a lawsuit, two men in their 20s now are saying the bishop, Eddie Long, took them on trips, gave them gifts, bought them a car, gave them cash, gave them jewelry, all as a ploy to have sex with them. And they say it was the church’s money that he was giving to them.
His lawyer is denying the allegations. But I want you to listen to some of the most graphic details in this lawsuit. Straight from the attorney who shocked many tonight when she stood before cameras and told this story of Eddie Long. Here she is.
B.J. BERNSTEIN, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING PLAINTIFFS: There, the pastor started to do what adult pedophiles do with younger, younger people, which is starting to spend time with them, casually watch TV with them and lay his legs on him, and then asked him to massage him. And then start explaining to him how special he was to him. And it was special for the bishop to be able to spend time with them. They did devotional readings together. He was over there on a regular basis at this house.
Eventually, it turned into such a relationship that the bishop had a ceremony with Anthony Flag called a covenant. Within that covenant, it was essentially a marriage ceremony where there were candles, exchange of jewelry and biblical quotes given, in order for Anthony to know and for the bishop to tell him, I will always have your back and you will always have mine. He would use biblical stories to talk about how important it was to follow your leader and your master and let him know that the acts he was engaged in were not necessarily meaning that he was a homosexual or that either of them was. But rather, the pastor, Bishop Long, was releasing his passion and his love for Anthony.
Meantime, we have Maurice Robinson. And while Anthony is living in this house, he’s bought a Mustang car. He’s given money. He is on the payroll of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church as reflected by the federal tax returns. And he starts to travel with the bishop. He goes to the “W” hotel in New York’s Times Square. He goes to the “W” hotel in Dallas where Anthony specifically remembers that he saw the zoo in town and that he wished he had gone to the zoo. But instead on that trip, he accompanied the bishop everywhere the bishop went, including sharing a bed in the same hotel room on that trip and many others.
They join this church, and the next thing he knows, he starts to immediately get to know the bishop. And the bishop — this is a very handsome young man. Very charismatic young man who wants nothing more to do what a lot of young African-American males want to do like their idols of being in the music business perhaps. And he introduces them to famous people. He meets T.I. He meets Chris Tucker. He meets all — Tyler Perry. He meets all kinds of famous people in the company of Bishop Long. And Bishop Long gives him a car. In fact, Bishop Long lets him drive his Bentley automobile. That’s right, Bishop Long has a Bentley. Or the church does, whoever owns it. And allows a young man at 17, 18 years ago old to drive it around.
The feeling of power. And he gives him money. And he puts him on the New Birth Missionary payroll which again will be reflected by the 1040 forms that he received. And in fact, Anthony has just in the accounting and the payroll, over $11,000 of payments on the payroll from New Birth Baptist church as an employee of a 17 or 18-year-old young man. And that’s not counting the cash, the gifts and the trips.
He, too, went on a number of trips, but for Maurice, he was a little bit tougher because his mother and father were both in his life. And yet, his mother recounts how the bishop — she thought there was nothing better for her son in their entire life to be handpicked as a personal attendant around the bishop.
Crossing the line, in which you have sexual contact of any sort with your parishioners and particularly vulnerable young men that you’re supposed to protect, it’s our belief that these two are just two of the brave ones who are willing to come forward. And I’m going to tell you now, you all are going to be chasing them around for interviews, and I’m not putting them through that. For them to sit down and reach out and tell me what happened, and it is the gory details in this complaint of the sexual acts that occur is more than enough. And we did not hide their names. This is not a John Doe lawsuit. But at the same time, they don’t need to be in front of cameras. They will tell this in a deposition and they will tell it to a judge.
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I’ve been saying for years thatI don’t think that Protestant denominations should be tossing stones at the Catholic Church about their sex abuse scandals because there are plenty of child sex abuse scandals to be uncovered in Protestant (and, yes, black) churches.
The differences is that most Protestant churches (especially of the Baptist/evangelical/Pentecostal variety) don’t have the top down leadership that the Catholic Church does, which makes it easier to pin the Catholic hierarchy.
Christians aren’t the only ones, eitherThere are sex-with-teens scandals in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities as well, which the communities, like the Catholic Church, tend to hush up.
The abusers and those who shelter them tend to think that public knowledge of the behavior itself would bring shame on the community, but as with the Catholic hierarchy, the cover up is perhaps the greater scandal.
I’m sure that one could pull out the Roman Catholic “ephebophilia” distinction, to try to blunt the “pedophile” allegations.
What I find interesting about this particular scandal is the “covenant” wedding thing – whether the Bishop invoked 1 Samuel 18 as part of his justification. The use of the term covenant in this context seems to reflect an understanding of the meaning of the relationship between David and Jonathan that most conservative Christianists don’t seem to recognize.
It’s almost too bad that Bishop Long was not open with his preaching. Had he expounded on the meaning of 1 Samuel 18 from his pulpit, it is entiely possible that he would not have felt it necessary to lure teenagers into a “relationship” with him – if a recognition and cherishing of the positive gay images from the Bible were a part of the Bishop’s preaching, perhaps, if one of these young men were to reach past the legal age of consent, the Bishhop could hae done openly exactly the same sort of thing he did on the down low, and without crossing the line into having sex wth an underage person.
However, the association with child molestation/pedophilia/ephebophilia, and the secretive nature of the relationships, tarnishes any good that could have come from this sort of revelation. The Bishop apparently hid his revelation under a bushel basket – and as a result, he found it necessary to cross the line into seduction of underage boys.
The truth, perhaps, could have helped him avoid the scandal. It might have meant a great many of his flock would have gone elsewhere, to find a church that caters to their bigotry. But he would have been able to stand in the daylight and hold his head high, rather than slinking around in guilty shame and doing the unspeakable.
Granted, all that’s true.But which Protestant denominations have had to pay out over than two billion dollars in settlements and hush money over cases like this? I’m far from an apologist for Protestant churches, but the clear, unavoidable fact is that the Catholic church is an international pedophilia ring and has been for centuries. The Protestants are mere amateurs.
The very fact that Protestant churches don’t have the same kind of institutional, top-down structure as the Catholic church means that incidents involving clerics like Long are isolated. The Catholic church, at the institutional level, condones and protects child-rapists. And once again: they’ve been doing it for centuries.
Particularly in the American Protestant churchesI don’t think there is all that much of an “institutional level.” Therefore, where exactly would you assign responsibility?
I just don’t think that the institutions are even there in the (very many) Protestant denominations to run a protection racket on the scale of the Catholic Church.
That doesn’t mean that I think there is less abuse. Maybe it’s simply easier to hide and to avoid accountability.
Well, we agree, in essence.But remember that Joseph Ratzinger, before he became pope, authored the official Vatican policy forbidding bishops to report abuse cases to the authorities, or to acknowledge them in any way. But there are documents dating from as early as the 1400s in which people complained that their bishops were turning a blind eye to child molestation; Ratzinger’s policy only formalized that long-standing practice.
But I think that any institution that arbitrarily places people in positions of authority, particularly over children, is bound to be a hotbed of abuse. And that certainly includes the Protestant churches, where being a minister (or a bishop, or even an “apostle”) is frequently just a matter of claiming to be one.
I know I am replying to myself . . . This, over at JMG, from the attorney for the plaintiffs:
So, what is being said there is that Bishop Long is only a chickenhawk, and not exactly an “ephebophile” or “pedophile.”
So, what, exactly, is the lawsuit all about? If there was no sex with underage individuals, what do we have – sexual harrassment by an employer?
We have a person in a position of “power” taking advantage of 16 year old kidsWhich is the definition of pedophilia.
THIRD LAWSUIT Rod has all the details.
I have to agree JoannI admit to taking some pleasure in watching this train wreck. In fact, I think I’ve found the cause of homosexuality…it appears to be caused by homophobia.
Anyway, even the video, it appears the lawyer is implying that they had sex when “Anthony” turned 18.
If 16 is the age of consent in GA, I agree, what’s the “legal” violation here. Certainly there was an ethical and moral violation, but that’s not the same.
Sounds like they got older and the payments dried up. I’m not blaming victims here, but it does appear they were of the age of consent, and Anthony was 18, certainly old enough to make decisions and keep himself out of a situation he didn’t want to be in with all the traveling.
Where’s this news framed asthe hypocrisy of an outspoken antigay yet closeted self hating homosexual?
All three MSN reporting of this never even say gay, let alone anti gay.
Doubt any other closeted self hating homosexual anti gay bigots out there are learning from this, and neither are their congregations.
I agree with comments here about the abuse of power but doubt that tomorrow in Georgia anything will be much better for my LGBT sisters and brothers.
I was at a mosque in Ohio once where a Saudi national who taught there was sexually molesting one of the boys whom he taught. A very young boy, who reported it to the imam. Instead of reporting it to the authorities, the imam was judge, jury, and executioner in an internal trial. The Saudi perp was found guilty. The punishment was that he got flogged with a stick and then banished from the community. At the time we were all like, “good riddance.” Nobody considered at the time (this was 23 years ago) that the creep could then go someplace else and molest a new kid. We ought to have turned him in to the cops and put him behind bars. But the imam was going off his medieval Islamic teachings that prescribed flogging and banishment for sex offenders. Even though the American due process of law and proper prosecution would have done more to protect children from that perp. They probably wanted to keep the case internal, to avoid PR problems for Muslims in the American public eye. And therein lies much of the problem with these sorts of cases.